Benefit/Harm Evidence Equalization

An Example

Hey Scott, I'm sorry for calling you out on Twitter like that, but the stance you have taken in regards to hold up conflation in bougie cric is a kind of a load of crap. I mean no disrespect when I say that because I trust you a ton, I do my own fact finding as well, but to me that seems way out of character for you to watch a video of someone else, not you, performing a skill very incorrectly, and then allowing that to change your game plan. This is very sensitive ground you are walking on here and people will take this a run without even trying to wrap their head around what they just saw. This where social media can be problematic. In the end, hold up isn't the problem, it's a lack of appropriate training that is that issue. We can't allow the lowest common denominator to win here. We have to constantly make sure that bar is held high! Again no disrespect but I felt I had to speak up. Thanks for your time!

Share this:

Cite this post as:

Scott Weingart. Podcast 180 – On Argumentation, Fallacies, and Twitter Misery. EMCrit Blog. Published on August 22, 2016. Accessed on September 15th 2019. Available at [https://emcrit.org/emcrit/argumentation/ ].

Financial Disclosures

Unless otherwise noted at the top of the post, the speaker(s) and related parties have no relevant financial disclosures.

There is a natural tendency to become personally invested in a concept or treatment. If someone then challenges this concept, we respond in an emotional and irrational fashion, as if we were being personally attacked.

(2) “winner fallacy” or “cage-match fallacy”

This is the belief that if an argument continues for long enough, a “winner” with the “truth” will emerge victoriously from it. This may be valid in theoretical mathematics or physics, but it often doesn’t work in medicine. There are many topics for which insufficient evidence exists. Arguments about these topics could rage on indefinitely, without any progress.

Thus, there will often be a “stopping point” to an argument, a point at which both sides have put forth their views and there is nothing to be gained from further argumentation. When the stopping point is reached, the argument should be put on hold until additional evidence or experience is gained.